Men still outstrip women as BBC reveals its big earners

GARY Lineker is the BBC’s top earner according to a list released yesterday which featured an all-male top 12. The Match Of The Day host now takes home between £1.75million and £1,759,999, the corporation revealed.

He replaced Chris Evans at the top who is still earning between £1.6million and £1,669,999 for his Radio 2 Breakfast show.

Last year’s accounts showed the DJ took home up to £2,249,999 in the 12 months to April.

But his salary has been reduced since leaving Top Gear.

The list of 12 published this year is not only all male but also all white and all middle aged – with Lineker and Evans followed by Radio 2 DJ Graham Norton, on up to £609,999, not including payments for his TV chat show.

It’s not a 60/40 gender pay gap, I’m saying that of the figures of men versus women who are now paid over £150,000 a year, you’ve got 60 per cent men and 40 per cent women

Tony Hall

If included, they would feature payments to Claudia Winkleman for Strictly Come Dancing, Alex Jones for The One Show and Fiona Bruce for Antiques Roadshow.

It also said that changes to pay packets in recent months were also not reflected as the list is compiled from salaries up to April this year.

Despite not all her earnings being declared Claudia Winkleman is still the top woman, on £370,000 to £379,999.

Mary Berry, who earns between £190,000 to £199,999, and Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, who is now in the £220,000 to £229,999 bracket, were among eight women to have joined the list.

Speaking yesterday BBC director general Lord Tony Hall said: “It’s not a 60/40 gender pay gap, I’m saying that of the figures of men versus women who are now paid over £150,000 a year, you’ve got 60 per cent men and 40 per cent women.

“I’m focusing on that because these things take time and to begin to change the dynamics of what people are paid takes time, it’s important we focus on where we are now right here which is why 60/40 matters... but I’ve made it absolutely clear that’s not good enough and I want to get to 50/50, and that will mean changes in the range of what people are paid”.

COMMENT - Duncan Simpson

THIS year the TV tax has gone up again and many people have been wondering whether that extra money is being spent well.

With the publication of the BBC’s accounts we can see a staggering amount is dished out to celebrity hosts.

There’s no denying that Match Of The Day is popular and with the World Cup proving to be an excellent tonic for the current febrile political atmosphere in the country, decent remuneration should follow.

But does Gary Lineker, a former Barcelona striker, need almost £2million a year for a day’s work each week?

Chat show host Graham Norton (Image: BBC)

I doubt it.

The BBC has long suffered from serious mismanagement and overstaffing.

The licence fee is clearly out of date and more Britons are now calling for it to be abolished entirely.

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and other commercial competitors are driving up the quality of programming and choice available to consumers.